Poisoned bread and gruel, or starvation — Road to Empress I turns simple choices into life-or-death gambles. In one sequence, players could die in three different ways after being sent to the dungeon for wearing a “flashy outfit.” Road to Empress (or Seongse Cheonha in Korean), a Chinese-made interactive palace intrigue game, has taken Korean gamers by storm, with many applauding its immersive, interactive, innovative and easy-to-play nature. Since the release of its first part in early September, Road to Empress has been a particularly big hit in Korea, driving significant livestreaming activity by gamers on YouTube, once topping the nation's Apple App Store paid chart and remaining a top 5 seller into mid-December. Produced by China’s New One Studio, the two-part game is a narrative role-playing game set in the 618-907 Tang Dynasty, inspired by the true story of Wu Zetian, China's only female emperor. It features a branching narrative structure, where players’ choices in dialogue, actions and quick-time events heavily impact the path of the story branches and characters’ fa